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Friday, February 4, 2011

Friday Newsletter and Follow News: 4 February 2011

This Week in Genea-Blogging

Remembering the past

We all remember certain historical events in our lives, especially those that evoked a strong emotional response. When we actually have a personal connection or were involved somehow in the event, our emotional connection is even stronger. Susan Petersen has written a moving post about her memories of and connection to the Challenger space shuttle disaster at Long Lost Relatives.net in “Space Shuttle Challenger - My Personal Disaster.”


Book or blog?

T. K. at Before My Time gives us a treat in “Don’t ya just hate when that happens?” - a consideration of how a genealogy blog and genealogy book may supplement one another but do not take the place of the other, and an illustration of how her blog is being used to supplement a book - she includes scans and transcriptions of a family letter that did not make it into her recent book.


Must get this...

Just what I need for handling the images I use on my blog! In “Blog Tools: ImageWell,” Denise Olson at Moultrie Creek Gazette describes this tool that bloggers with Macs can use for handling the images in our blogs.


Hmmm, this gets more and more interesting...


At The Family Curator, Denise Levenick reports on her progress in keeping her genealogy resolutions using the buddy system with Amy Coffin of We Tree in “January Update on 2011 Genealogy Resolutions with Blogging Buddy, Amy Coffin.” And do I see a competition developing between them and Sheri Fenley (The Educated Genealogist) and Cheryl Palmer (Heritage Happens)?


Vertical files, what vertical files?

Cynthia Shenette at Heritage Zen reminds us to check the vertical files at libraries in “Does Your Public Library Have a Vertical File? - Tuesday’s Tip.” I would add that a number of genealogy and local history societies also keep vertical files.


Roots in the Census

Taneya of Taneya’s Genealogy Blog has done some interesting research on the people featured in the book and miniseries Roots - see what she has found in “The Husband Knows.”


If you’re not part of the solution ...

Last week I highlighted a post by a person who had reexamined some of her research and admitted that it might contain a mistake; this week a blogger admits she might have been a bit hasty in her criticisms of the local genealogy society and that she decided to get involved in helping the society to change where necessary: Lisa Swanson Ellam of The Faces of My Family says “I Stand Corrected.”


Which backup is the best bet?

If you are trying to decide among various services for offsite backup of your genealogy files, check out “Mozy drops unlimited backups new pricing introduced” at SpittalStreet.com to see a comparison of some of the main backup services.


More on Lulu

At Olive Tree Genealogy Blog, Lorine McGinnis Shulze describes her experience in creating a book of family photos using Lulu.com - how she produced the book and her assessment of the results - in "Publishing a Photo Book on Lulu."


“Pic” of the week:

Check at the bottom of Carol’s Reflections from the Fence. Then read about how it was done in "THE Trip, How to Make a 420 Foot Circle of Montanas."


For more suggested blog reading ...


Check out “Best of the Genea-Blogs” at Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings and “Follow Friday: Around the Blogosphere” at Susan Petersen’s Long Lost Relatives.net.


Happy First Blogoversary to Jenn at Roots and Stones!

Happy First Blogoversary to The Scottish Genealogist!

Happy First Blogoversary to Anglers Rest!

Happy Second Blogoversary to Amanda at A Tale of Two Ancestors!

This week I started following these blogs:


World War II London Blitz Diary

A Worthington Weblog

Beldin Family Alliances: From Then Til Now

Climbing the Genealogy Tree

Families of Old Hawaii

Family History

Finding the Feitner Family

Hearts Turned

Heritage Heart

Kentucky Kinfolk

My Journey Back

My Savage Family

Ontario Genealogist

Prairie Bluestem

Saint Cross Upheaval

Tipton Tales and Trails

Grave Encounters

Anglers Rest


My Research Week


All the girls were farm laborers, working out


This week I was working with a 1930 census showing a family consisting of a widowed mother, no occupation, and two teenaged girls, occupation - Farm laborers, working out. I have seen families where some of the teenaged girls were listed as farm laborers, but it for some reason it seemed strange to see this in a family consisting of just the widowed mother and her daughters.

Ancestry on iPad!

There is now an Ancestry app for iPad! Yeah! (Not that I have an iPad, yet, but still, I’m looking ahead.)

Comments and contacts

In response to Amy Coffin’s “Comments” Post at We Tree, I have changed commenting (removed word verification) and added more direct instructions on contacting me. So far, so good with the comments.

Two strikes

Our genealogy society meeting was canceled due to bad weather last week and I had to pull out of the DAR Library tour next week due to work obligations.  Waaah....

14 comments:

  1. Greta, thanks for the shout out on Image Well. I'll be very interested to hear what you think about it.
    --Denise

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  2. Uh oh, our little competition has been found. I expect a showdown at the SCGS Jamboree in June. I better get on my tasks!

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  3. Thanks for the shoutout and links to my Non-Genie photos of the circling of the Montanas!

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  4. Boy, nothing gets past you Greta! LOL Denise started it with her "Double Dog Dare" and not being one who runs from such, I have upped the ante. Amy is correct - Jamboree in June is where it all will end.

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  5. Greta - Thanks so much for the shout out! Vertical files are something I use all the time, and I hope other people do too.

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  6. Greta - thank you so much for the mention of my post about the Challenger tragedy. I really appreciate the recognition.

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  7. Once again you found some blogs I wasn't following. Thank heavens you are! Great picks all.

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  8. Denise - Thanks for so many helpful tech posts!

    Amy - Oh, I wish I could be there! This will be epic.

    Carol - I was even telling everyone at work about that picture - just awesome!

    Sheri - "Double Dog Dare," huh? Well, we'll see if she can follow that up!

    Cynthia - Once I learned what they are (learned through a RootsWeb mailing list that there might be some that I'm really interested in in the hole in the wall where my relatives lived in Illinois), I figured I would just always ask!

    Susan - It was a beautiful piece and really made me see the event from the perspective of those who involved and close to the event.

    NR - Glad to please - I do the same, checking out links on other blogs.

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  9. Thanks for the shout-out, Greta, and for distracting me from what I should be doing with all these other great posts! ;-)

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  10. T.K. - Heh, heh - always glad to be of assistance!

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  11. As usual, thanks for bringing me up to date. I was able to visit a couple of the sites already.

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  12. Hi Greta!
    I'm a little behind on my blog reading but thank you for the shout-out! I do stand corrected and a little bit taller for rectifying my mistake!

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  13. Kathleen - Isn't it neat how some really interesting new blogs keep popping up? I know I miss a lot, and there is always a paranoid feeling that I'm missing a "don't miss" somewhere!

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  14. I was so impressed by your post and Lorine's post on reevaluating conclusions. I think that's what makes a great researcher/genealogist - true curiosity and impartial judgment, not the big egos and "I'm always right" that can often be seen in the "scholarly community."

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